When The Gamers came with their pre-pub offer on This Hallowed Ground, I knew that I had to buy it. As soon it arrived here in Sweden we started to prepare for play in our club SISAUppsala. As I never play anything but the campaign scenario in games, we started to set up Scenario 6.12, The Battle of Gettysburg.

Confederate side:

R. Lee and A. P. Hill's Corps: Anders Frankson
R. S. Ewell's Corps: Peter Agback

Union Side:

Buford's Cavalry and 11th Corps: Jan-Erik Wahlund
1st Corps: Anders Vastberg

Depending how far we would be able to play, further players would join the game. All of us was had played CWB several times and knew this system (CWB) very well.

First problem: what a huge map area. We had big problems fitting the maps with our gaming tables without taking too much space (too many tables) in our club, which would cause some minor outcries from others members.

Opening Moves

Then we started up. The first turns went very quickly because very few troops are in play. Heth's Division moved up slowly towards McPherson's Ridge because I wanted to have Pettigrew's Brigade in the lead. Also on a regimental/battery scale, Heth's Division has a lot units but also a lot of space to cover. As I moved forward and tried to arrange my battle formation, with Pettigrew in the lead to attack along the Chambersburg Pike, Archer on his right to attack through Herbst's Woods and Davis to cover the left flank (Brockenbrough in reserve behind the left flank), the Union (Buford's troops) lost patience with the "tardy" rebel movements and tried to take the initiative for a flank-attack. Buford's troops decided to move as quickly as possible towards Oak Hill and defend there if Heth's Division tried to outflank them via Oak Hill. Needless to say, Jan-Erik rolled 11.

Oops, we have to force-march boys, Iron Brigade double- quick. Some fighting between them and Pettigrew and Archer took place. Heth's boys took the forward knob of McPherson's Ridge and decided that this was enough, they didn't want to start a battle (attack stoppage at 10:00 AM).

The Union side was very tempted to counterattack with 1st Corps but they knew Pender's Division was further back and soon Rodes's boys would arrive, but since Heth's Division ended their attack they decided for defense at Gettysburg with some hope that Pender and Heth would not become active until much later.

As Vastberg didn't have time to play, Jan-Erik assumed full command on Union side. The Union troops had the following orders at 10:15 AM:

Buford: Defend along Blocher's run and delay enemy from north by successive fall back towards Gettysburg. (D5; initiative roll 10:30 AM: Move to Almshouse Run and defend there until 12:00 Pm, then retreat to Cemetery Ridge.)

Howard: Defend Cemetery Hill and Raffensberger's Hill (accepted)

Doubleday: Move towards Gettysburg and defend Sunken Road and southern part of Gettysburg (135, accepted 10:30 AM).

On the Southern side, I rolled for Pettigrew and Pender to get these formations going. I didn't roll for Heth because I didn't want to lose my position on McPherson's Ridge at E. McPherson's place. Rodes's first units entered and Pettigrew decided to clear the area at Lutheran Theological Seminary and take control of the crossroads to the south of the seminary (hex B 33.11). We on the Southern side didn't realize that the Union side was retreating as far as Gettysburg and Cemetery Hill to form a defense line there.

Rodes's Division moved forward but there were no enemies in his area for his units except for some facing Doles's Georgia boys. But before they were able to get in contact with Buford, his troops had moved out from Almshouse Run towards Pitzer's school (hex D 9.11) to defend and control this area. Thus Rodes had no combat contact with the enemy (rolling for initiative didn't help).

Pettigrew took his area since the I st Corps was falling back and Pender decided (11.15 AM) to move forward with his division: via Fairfield Road from Whisler's Ridge to Seminary Ridge, form line south of the road and attack towards Cemetery Hill and take Evergreen Cemetery. This attack would hit the left flank of the Union position. Finally we were getting into contact with the enemy.

The Situation Develops

When Pender's lead units reached Seminary Ridge, A. P. Hill and Ewell moved into on the map with new orders. As we (Peter and I) read these new orders (we didn't exactly check out everything before the game), I became somewhat annoyed: finally when my troops were moving forward to attack, they had to go back to Herr's Ridge to defend.

Peter was somewhat more happy, he could attack and take Gettysburg, so Rodes's boys launched an assault into Gettysburg (left flank rested on Carlisle Road and right flank on Chambersburg Pike). Three brigades in first wave, Daniel, O'Neal, and Iverson, hit Baxter's and Cutler's Brivades verv hard Both these brigades were shot to pieces in the streetfigthing. Paul's Brigade joined the fighting but soon Reynolds decided to fall back (Lee was moving on the map). The order to Doubleday was to defend Cemetery Ridge with lst Corps; therefore 1st Corps retreated from Gettysburg (no problem to accept). Thus Ewell had completed his order, O'Neal and Ramseur had suffered somewhat (two wrecked regiments each) while Doles hadn't been used at all

Lee quickly gave orders to both A. P. Hill and Ewell to attack the enemy and take possession of Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hills.

A. P. Hill: Move to Seminary Ridge and form line between Chamberburg Pike and McMillan's Woods. Attack towards Cemetery Hill and take Evergreen Cemetery. Brockenbrough and Davis from Heth protect the flank at McMillan's Woods to the Sunken Road..

Ewell: Early's Division, move to Benner's Hill, form line and attack towards Upper and Lower Culp's Hill. Rodes's Division support the attack from Gettysburg along Baltimore Pike towards Steven's Knoll.

A.P.Hill accepted almost at once (D5 1:45 Pm, accepted 2:00 Pm) while Ewell needed more time to prepare (d6). Thus, Hill's forces started advancing. The plan was to attack was in waves, trying to avoid wrecking brigades completely. To get all artillery in position, all Hill's batteries would move forward at the same time to deploy to prevent the Union batteries from blasting away the artillery piece by piece.

The first wave was Thomas and Scales, who hit the Union line between Rupp's Tannery and Ziegler's Grove. Here we really noticed for their first time the difference between the morale tables in RSS and CWB: the enemy gunfire forced many regiments back, so they had to return fire at two-hex range with much less effect. Perrin moved his brigade into the line against the orchards on Cemetery Hill, and Scales covered the right flank, supported by a lot of batteries.

After the Confederate forces had started their attack, the Union side decided to give up the defense of Raffensberger's Hill, ordering the division there (1 st/ 11 th Corps) to Culp's Hill to defend. Also Buford was ordered to attack and destroy the batteries (five of them) on Seminary Ridge at McMillan's Woods. The attack would be launched from the west (south of Fairfield Road and across Pitzer's Run).

The fighting over Cemetery Hill went on, Archer and Lane moved into the fray, and Scales was taken out. for the Union, the 2nd Division (von Steinwehr) was very much used up; therefore Schurz's Division was the holding the hill, supported by parts of Doubleday's Division (commanded by Rowley) on his left. Ewell's Corps was still preparing (no success with D6), so Lee made a visit with a new order: "Corps attack towards Spangler's Spring over Raffensberger's Hill, left flank on Rock Creek and right flank on Baltimore Pike. Take control of Culp's Hill (Upper and Lower) and defend along Spangler's Spring and Rock Creek." For this change of plan, Ewell needed time to prepare (he rolled D5).

Buford's cavalry ran into Davis and Brockenbrough from Heth's Division at McMillan's Woods. Amazingly these brigades could put up a fair fight although Davis's troops ran away a little too much. Two batteries were destroyed and Buford was wounded in action. On Cemetery Hill Pettigrew's North Carolinians rushed forward while Lane's and Thomas's Brigades moved to the rear. The hill was almost in Southern hands but if A. P. Hill wanted to get full control, he had to really wreck some brigades.

On the Union side Barlow's Division 0st/11th Corps) started at 4:15 Pm to retreat away from Raffensberger's Hill to the Culp's Hills to defend them. Also Slocum and his troops accepted orders to defend the Culp's Hills area and Steven's Knoll. They moved along the Baltimore Pike towards this area. On the Confederate side during same turn Ewell gave the order to advance with his entire corps. Both sides were moving up troops for a big fight for this area.

Anderson's Division had arrived on the map and accepted orders very quickly to move to the Peach Orchard and secure (defend) the area. Thus Anderson started to move out; the purpose of this move was to cause anxiety for the Union side and to acquire a good position for further operations with minimal losses.

We had to end the game at 4:45 Pm for several reasons, but we had learned a lot:

1. Don't use artillery in penny-packets if the enemy has already deployed two or three batteries. He can fire 4 to 6 times before your own batteries are deployed.

2. One Confederate division has many units, but still you need perhaps two complete divisions to make a larger assault.

3. Napoleons in defensive fire against infantry: your regiments feel it. It is very important to place them right in your defensive line. Also, they are very handy to use in attacks if one is able to suppress enemy artillery.

4. Morale table, easy to be pushed back a hex before one is able to fire back.

5. Smaller regiments get wrecked very quickly. Perhaps a size modifier, for example a 4-SP compared to a 12-SP doesn't offer the same target size in a hex, and therefore it would be more difficult to direct the same amount of guns and fire against a hex with the former unit than the latter.

[Ed. note: I disagree with this reasoning. A smaller unit would present less frontage and therefore, perhaps, a smaller target. But it battle line it would still be about as dense a target, That is,I don't think a small unit would have increased its interval between troops. That's my opinion, and I will defer to Dave Powell on this point.]

Closing Words

This Hallowed Ground is a very playable and fun game. A lot of events take place. We hope to be able to play the full campaign (three days) some time and we hope that next game in RSS will arrive soon.